First Anderson Family Road Trip!!
On Sunday, May 29, Stephanie and I set out on our first 'vacation' as a family. An epic road trip, of epical magnitude.
It started out benign enough. After church on Sunday (at which service my name was drawn out of a hat for deaconship...it is rather frightening that I'm old enough to be a deacon...) we drove to my parents place in Erie, PA. There we spent Memorial Day at Presque Isle state park, just relaxing...well...Stephanie, Aundrea and my mom relaxed. Dad kept busy keeping Otto entertained, and I spent the entire time hunting for beach glass.
While at my parents place, we learned that Aundrea is quite proficient at climbing stairs. She climbed all the way to the top on her first try, and required very little help climbing back down! It is also frightening how quickly she is growing up...
It might be hard to see, but this is my mother's shrine to Aundrea. There is not a single picture on that refrigerator that does not have Aundrea in it. I don't think Marcie (my sister) is on that fridge (But I bet she would be if there were a picture of her holding Aundrea).
Tuesday we headed down to Ohiopyle, which, contrary to logical presumptions, is in Pennsylvania. Dad had to work, but Mom joined us for this leg of the journey so that we could tour FallingWaters, one of the more famous Frank Lloyd Wright designs (Children under the age of six are not permitted on the tour).
It was a really cool house, and I did like how Frankie (can I call him that?) worked the natural landscape into the design of the house, but those brown parts are actually just concrete covered in stucco, which I didn't find particularly aesthetically pleasing. Perhaps because it reminded me of our cheap, ghetto apartment out in California.
After the tour we headed to our cabin at the Ohiopyle State Park campground, and then did a bit of hiking just to see some of the sights.
It appears that we may have done a bit too much hiking for the elderly grandma along.
But we discovered that Aundrea greatly loves to splash in the water. She is her father's daughter. (It was also at this spot that my mother tragically dropped her camera into the river. It started working again once she got home, but for those of you who know my mother, the camera nazi, being deprived of it in the presence of her grandchild doing cute things, or in the absence of cute things, doing anything at all, was torture for her)
The next day (Wednesday) Steph and I decided to once again take advantage of my mom's presence (re: babysitter) in order to do some white water rafting. We certainly didn't realize it at the time, but Ohiopyle has some fantastic rafting. We did the lower river which had a bunch of category threes, and several category fours, but if you're more adventurous, the upper river is pretty much all fives.
My mom was sitting on top of a bridge to take some pictures as we went by. Go figure, this is the set of rapids where I fell out. Also go figure, despite my mom not knowing which raft we were in, she managed to get full documentation of the drama. Thankfully I wasn't the only person to do so, but I was still quite embarrassed.
So here we are, rafting along all fun like. We're the top raft. You can kinda see my yellow shirt in the back corner of the raft (Sorry for the poor image quality...I zoomed in as much as I could in photoshop, but as Blogger naturally downsizes the image, it's still kinda hard to see).
In this picture you can see everyone in the raft leaning over to help someone back into the raft. Yeah...that's me.
And here you can see that, apart from one leg, I'm mostly back in. I have to salute our raft guide, Missy, who somehow managed to grab my ankle before I had even completely fallen out of the raft. To be honest, I don't even know how it happened. One moment I was paddling, the next I was in the water. Oh well, I figure I just got the 'full experience' of rafting.
Steph and I both had a blast doing it...and it certainly fed my already potent desire to get a Kayak...although if I do get one, I won't be tackling any category 4 rapids any time soon!
After our rafting adventure, we went to a nearby tributary of the Ohiopyle River and rode the 'natural water slide'. Not as thrilling as white water rafting, but still a lot of fun, and much cheaper.
There were three levels to the slide, the last of which I only did once as it throws you into some nasty rocks, but the first two levels were great.
This is another picture that I took into Photoshop and zoomed in on. Perhaps my favorite picture of Stephanie from this entire trip!
After the water slide, we stopped by Cucumber Falls (it was great, all of this, the rafting, the slide, Cucumber Falls, were all within just two or three miles of each other).
Don't I look all Zenny and peaceful? WELL I'M NOT! THAT WATER HURTS!!!
Ah, my genius looking vampire baby...
After Cucumber Falls we went to Ohiopyle Falls.
Not super tall (only 15 feet) but still pretty dramatic.
There's a future astrophysicist in there somewhere...as long as vampires can be astrophysicists.
We got this fancy hiking baby carrier for Aundrea...man that thing was great. It made her (relatively) easy to carry, and she loved it too. Never once did she complain while in that thing. In fact, when we hiked with her in that proved to be the one time of the day we could reliably get her to sleep (yeah...very rarely did she sleep in the car seat............................................)
The falls from the other side of the river.
The entire time we were there, we were looking for this place that our state parks book said was great for watching the sunset at. We never did find it, but we did find this nice overlook in the search.
The next day, Thursday, we parted ways with my mom. She headed back to Erie, with a few shopping stops on the way, while we drove to Shenandoah National Park, where we spent the rest of the day.
To be honest, I was pretty disappointed with Shenandoah. It was one of the least exciting National Parks I've been to. The two ways I can see it being worth the entry cost is A) you're going in the fall when all the trees are changing or B) you're old and feeble and want a park where you can see pretty much everything there is to see from your car. But even there, the I liked the Blue Ridge Parkway MUCH more, and that was free...soooo...yeah. Skip it.
Pretty much the only thing we did besides pull over and look at scenic overpasses (which all start to look the same after a while) was to hike down to this cool, multi-level waterfall. Unfortunately all the trees made it difficult to get a picture of it that did it justice.
So this was kinda crazy. The last few miles of the park, we were stopped for about 20 minutes while a wrecker recovered a car that had gone over a cliff earlier in the day. Unfortunately (I just verified it with a Google search) the 53 year old woman driving the car died.
But the day ends on a good note! We stayed at the Afton Mountain Bed and Breakfast. Our hosts were very kind, and it was a really cool house.
Our hosts recommended Blue Mountain Brewery for dinner, advice which I am very thankful that we heeded. We got the Black and Blue pizza, which was sausage and feta cheese, and it packed a punch! The sauce was unlike any pizza sauce I've ever had before, and yet the flavor was nagging familiar. It wasn't until the last slice or two that I finally placed it. The sauce either was, or had in it, red curry! It sounds pretty strange, but that was quite possibly the best pizza I've ever had. They also had one of the best beers I've ever had. It was called "Dark Hollows". It's aged in oak bourbon barrels, so it has a hint of bourbon flavoring, and a unique touch from the oak barrels. DE-LIC-IOUS!
The next day we hopped on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Which was gorgeous. And fun. But we'll get to that later (the fun, that is, we'll get right to the Blue Ridge Parkway...as should be made obvious by the sign in the picture below).
Unfortunately we just missed seeing it in action, but one of our stops was at this little Olde Tyme villages. I guess they took a bunch of the original buildings and put this place together to show what life was like in the Appalachian mountains in the time of early settlers.
That night we stayed at the Blue Ridge Bed and Breakfast. To be frank, this was a far cry from the B&Bs Steph and I have stayed in thus far. It was a fairly modest house, and didn't seem particularly suited to be a B&B (awkward room layout). As Steph said, it was more like just staying in someone's house. I also think that it was more geared towards the biker crowed (which there were a lot of on the Parkway!). Pool table, bar, 80's rock and roll playing in the living room...that sort of thing. But what it lacked in grandeur it made up for in the hosts being really nice people (I'm talking with the main host on the porch in this picture). Also, the breakfast was a bounteous feast of deliciousness.
Spectacular views.
I told Kyle (childhood friend) that someday we were going to bike the Blue Ridge Parkway. Now I just need a road bike.
We stopped briefly at an old plantation manor turned hoity toity craft store. Steph was excited to see horses. They had nothing to do with the house, but the plantation owner's hobby was building roads (how weird is that?), and built something obscene like 1500 miles worth of carriage roads on his estate(almost as obscene as having an estate with 3,600 acres!). These local people ride their horses on these old carriage roads most Saturdays. With views like this, I might even ride frequently.
And the house. Man would I ever love a house like that....
And the view that comes with it (this is basically looking out from the porch above).
Steph got a pair of copper earrings, and we got a print for Aundrea's Nursery, but overall the prices were steep. This quilt was only about 2 ft.^2 0.0
And some more pictures of the prettiness.
Our vampire baby sucking the life out of a banana. Go figure, she doesn't really like bananas unless she can eat the skin too...gross.
But while we were stopped here picnicking, a lady started talking to us, asking us how we liked our Mazda 3 (Love it!). She had a Mazda 5. Well, she left, and then came back bearing gifts for Aundrea. You can see she is quite pleased with them (A fish that 'swims' when you pull a string, and a sand bucket with shovel). Now there is some southern hospitality! And her parting words to us: zoom-zoom. Hahahaha! My kind of lady.
It was actually that ladies comment that inspired me to do this:
I'm not going to lie, I was driving like a bit of a maniac. Those twisty-turny roads were just too fun to pass up. At one point, two touring cycles passed me (and I was already going about 10-15 mph over), so I vowed that I was going to keep up with them. Much to my surprise I did. Let me tell you, my Mazda is boss. Until traveling on this road, I never knew just how good that thing handles...I was zipping around turns effortlessly, and with those massive brakes, I never had any trouble slowing down when an unexpectedly sharp turn appeared in the road ahead. Plus it has pretty good pick-up. The only slight problem is that there were plenty of people who did not share my enthusiasm for speed, and I always felt like kinda a jerk for passing them. By writing that into the dust on the back of my car, I felt like I was offering those I passed a small justification for my erratic driving. Or perhaps it made me seem like more of a jerk? I don't know...but boy did I have fun.
Our next stop was an apple orchard that was over 100 years old. Not a whole lot to do there seeing as it's not apple season, but they were having some Appalachia culture festival. You should've seen the old timers get up and tap dance to the music.
Our next stop proved to be my favorite hike of the trip. It was beautiful. All of it. It was a pretty rough trail...very steep and rocky, but it was worth every step.
The mountain laurels were blooming everywhere, as well as several other beautiful flowers (didn't include pictures of all of them).
And then the waterfall at the bottom of the gorge was spectacular. Unfortunately I don't remember the name of the falls off the top of my head...Steph will probably be able to add it later.
I loved this random tree that was growing in the middle of the stream, on boulders, at the base of the falls. Too cool.
Like I said, Aundrea rarely slept in the car seat, but in the backpack...lights out!
This is the highest point east of the Mississippi. We didn't take the half mile trail to the actual peak...we figured this was good enough (it was late, Aundrea was getting fussy, and we were tired).
We ate dinner at the restaurant just a little ways down the road from the peak. It offered a spectacular view...and the prices were actually quite reasonable.
That night, just before we exited the parkway, someone was stopped in front of us. We couldn't figure out why until we were driving past...then Steph saw the black bear. So we turned around and shamelessly parked in the middle of the road just as the previous car had. Unfortunately, it was dark so it was hard to get a good picture of it.
That night we stayed at a total "Dead Hooker In The Bathroom" motel. Oh man. The bad side of town, dumpy...I literally got out of bed about 5 times to peek out the window and make sure our car was still there (there was a lot of commotion outside).
Yes, this is an actual picture of the comforter. Bleeagahsdg.
And lets not forget the classy artwork....
The next day we went to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.
First pictures are of the third highest peak south of the Mississippi (we had already gone to the first two).
But, how ironic, the view was a little...dare I say 'smokey'?
We then hiked on about 1/5th of a mile of the Appalachian trail. This is something Steph wanted to do, just so she could say she did it. So yes! We bravely hiked a small fraction of a mile of a trail that is over 2200 miles long! Go us!
Our stop for lunch.
Our difficult hike for the day. For the most part the weather was really nice, mostly because we were at such a high elevation that it never got too hot. But this hike was hot. My guess would be high 80s, with a very high humidity.
Cool little natural arch at the end of the hike (or at least where we turned around).
Our last hike of the day. This was a nature trail through 'virgin' forest. Steph and I were expecting a black bear to jump out and eat us at any moment. It just seemed like the perfect bear habitat.
As soon as...and I mean the FOOT that the Great Smokey Mountain's National Park ends, Gatlinburg begins. Now remember, I spent a good portion of my adolescence in Virginia Beach, VA, a tourist trap by any definition. My word, Gatlinburg made Va Beach look like a puritan settlement. If it was touristy, they had it: TWO Ripley's museums, a Guinness museum, a Bubba Gumps Shrimp Co., a Hard Rock Cafe, five, yes FIVE (that we saw, there may have been more), Olde Time Photo stores (I mean, seriously, how many old fashioned photo boutiques can one town support?!?), and about a billion other random touristy stores selling trash that no one would ever buy in their hometown, but apparently are all to happy to buy when they're on vacation.
Our next stop was Cumberland Falls, but Steph noticed that, on the map, no more than 20 miles from Cumberland was a little state park. So off we went! It was actually a really cool place.
Something that I struggle with in taking pictures is perspective. Sometimes it is really hard for me to put what I'm taking a picture of into perspective. This is one of those. This cave was huge...but none of the pictures really show that. This was the best I could do The backpack is sitting directly below the entrance, and if you look carefully, you can just make Steph out (If the backpack is the center of a clock, Steph is at 1:00ish)
Here are some random strangers whom I took pictures of, again to try to put things into perspective.
This cliff was on a hike on the other side of the road (so not the same as the pictures above).
Aundrea loved to steal my sunglasses. If I was carrying her, off the went. You will notice in that picture that one of the rubber ear pieces is missing. They are both now gone.
Another hike at this park was this one, which took us to Crystal Falls. Small, but very pretty.
Sometimes when I got tired, we let Aundrea take a turn at the wheel. If you thought I was a crazy driver...phaw...
So remember when I said that according to the map Pickett State Park was just a hop, skip and jump away from Cumberland Falls? Yeah. Not so much. Or if it is, there aren't any roads that conveniently link the two. Have you all seen the episode of the office where Michael Scott follows the GPS into the lake? This was kinda like that. It took us on a dirt road...and the whole time I'm having flashbacks to the Seattle Road Trip I took with Wojo, Liz and Scholma, where we followed the GPS and ended up having to get out of the car and clear boulders off of the never used forest road...which conveniently only had "Not For Public Use" signs at the other end of the road. Was it as bad as that? Yes and no. Did I have to get out and clear boulders off the road? No. Were there hills so steep that I had to take a speedy start, and still almost didn't make it up? Yes. Were there ravines in the road that had me scared a wheel was going to fall off? Yes. Did I fear that if we did get stranded we were going to be eaten by inbred cannibalistic hillbillies? Absolutely. Well, 10 miles or so of that, and we finally got back to pavement...such a blessing. Alas, the only picture Steph took was of a VERY tame segment of it.
Cumberland Falls was nice, but we were too hot and tired to really do much. We got out, checked it out (there's really no point where you get a great view of the falls unfortunately), and then headed on.
I thought these butterflies were pretty. Ain't I all sensitive and whatnot?
We ate dinner at a resteraunt at the top of the hill from the falls. It had a great view of the river below, and had some bird feeders, so there were lots of cool birds right out the window. Then, halfway through the dinner, I look outside and we have this little guy about four feet from where we sat, scavenging the birdseed.
Aundrea was quite fascinated with this large creature. It, in turn, ignored her.
Then we got to the final stop of our journey. Red River Gorge, where we were going to meet up with Nate (brother-in-law) and Derek (brother-in-law). Unbeknownst to me, Red River Gorge is one of the top rock climbing places in the world, and Nathan is an avid climber. So Steph was going to head back to MI, while the Brothers had some man time.
The Nada Tunnel. Pretty cool, although it's one lane nature was somewhat disconcerting.
We got there Monday, and we weren't expecting Nate and Derek until Tuesday evening, so after a more relaxing Monday night, Steph and I went to the Natural Bridge State Recreation Area in the morning.
We took the trail up to balancing rock...which we found out when we got back was the opposite way you're supposed to go, as the Balancing Rock trail was all steps. And it was 95. And humid.
This is balancing rock...and a cool tree growing next to it.
This is the view standing on top of the natural arch.
And this is a picture of natural arch standing on what is shown in the previous picture. With all the trees, you'd never even guess it was an arch.
But this proves it.
This is the 'original' path built by the railroad company that originally owned this land. Steph and I were quite curious as to what would happen should a more 'heavyset' individual take this trail.
Steph and I were eating lunch and looking forward to a nice afternoon nap in our A/C cabin when Nate and Derek arrived unexpectedly early. After getting things situated and relaxing for a bit, we did some climbing that afternoon.
A few general notes on climbing:
1) Nate is a beast. He climbed the route to set the rope up, and then after Derek and I climbed the route (and often helping us get past some challenging parts), he climbed it again and took the route down. On top of climbing every route twice, the hard way, he climbed one more challenging route that Derek and I didn't climb. And he climbed these routes with the grace of a mountain goat.
2) I thought I was going to kick Dereks butt at this, but, on some routes, he definitely out climbed me. Way to go Derek.
3) I have never received such a total body workout.
Nate actually talked Steph into climbing the first route, and despite some hesitation, and with some help from Nate, Steph got to the top! (That's her(or at least her butt) below)
Some of the other routes we climbed.
When we were too tired, or it was too hot (it was in the 90s every day we were there) we practiced our 'slack lining' (Think tight-rope). This is also something that Nate was exceptionally good at...walking all the way across, and then coming back across backwards, and all sorts of other crazy moves. I am proud to say that by the end of our time in Kentucky, I did manage to get 2/3rds of the way across, but alas I never made it all the way across.
Derek was a little kamikaze in his slack lining approach. When he would start to lose his balance, he would just start stumbling forward, attempting to get as many steps in as quickly as possible. This led to some hysterical dismounts. Both Nate and I were amazed that he managed to escape these often awkward dismounts relatively unscathed.
And this is me after Derek took my camera one to many times and took three or four quick succession pictures of absolutely nothing in particular.
And this...this is a source of both pride and shame. In climbing, as I understand it, difficulty is rated from 5.5 (super easy) to 5.14 (suuuuper hard). You will notice in the picture below a red circle. This was the start of our route. It was rated 5.7, so basically pretty easy. Derek got it no problem. I could not, for the life of me, get up this stupid thing. I had tried six or seven times, I was tired, sweaty, and angry. So Nate said: "Get off the line and take a break. I'll climb it and you can try again when you're more rested." I started to detach myself from the line, and then had a change of heart.
"Put it back on Nate, I'm going to try something stupid."
Now if you will look once more at the picture, you will see a red arrow pointing to a three or four foot overhang about 8 ft. off the ground. This was a 5.10 start, so fairly difficult. I decided I was going to try that one. What made me think that I could do a 5.10 when I couldn't do a 5.7 I have no idea, but I tried, and I got it, first try.
Lesson learned: Being tall certainly has many advantages in climbing. Being tall also has disadvantages when the hand/foot holds are closer together, thus forcing your center of gravity further out, thus making it more difficult to hold on. Also...I suck at climbing.
And the last night there, a mouse was scurrying over our feet by the campfire. Nate, the mighty conqueror, squashed it. The crows were quite boisterous in their thanks that morning.
It started out benign enough. After church on Sunday (at which service my name was drawn out of a hat for deaconship...it is rather frightening that I'm old enough to be a deacon...) we drove to my parents place in Erie, PA. There we spent Memorial Day at Presque Isle state park, just relaxing...well...Stephanie, Aundrea and my mom relaxed. Dad kept busy keeping Otto entertained, and I spent the entire time hunting for beach glass.
While at my parents place, we learned that Aundrea is quite proficient at climbing stairs. She climbed all the way to the top on her first try, and required very little help climbing back down! It is also frightening how quickly she is growing up...
It might be hard to see, but this is my mother's shrine to Aundrea. There is not a single picture on that refrigerator that does not have Aundrea in it. I don't think Marcie (my sister) is on that fridge (But I bet she would be if there were a picture of her holding Aundrea).
Tuesday we headed down to Ohiopyle, which, contrary to logical presumptions, is in Pennsylvania. Dad had to work, but Mom joined us for this leg of the journey so that we could tour FallingWaters, one of the more famous Frank Lloyd Wright designs (Children under the age of six are not permitted on the tour).
It was a really cool house, and I did like how Frankie (can I call him that?) worked the natural landscape into the design of the house, but those brown parts are actually just concrete covered in stucco, which I didn't find particularly aesthetically pleasing. Perhaps because it reminded me of our cheap, ghetto apartment out in California.
After the tour we headed to our cabin at the Ohiopyle State Park campground, and then did a bit of hiking just to see some of the sights.
It appears that we may have done a bit too much hiking for the elderly grandma along.
But we discovered that Aundrea greatly loves to splash in the water. She is her father's daughter. (It was also at this spot that my mother tragically dropped her camera into the river. It started working again once she got home, but for those of you who know my mother, the camera nazi, being deprived of it in the presence of her grandchild doing cute things, or in the absence of cute things, doing anything at all, was torture for her)
The next day (Wednesday) Steph and I decided to once again take advantage of my mom's presence (re: babysitter) in order to do some white water rafting. We certainly didn't realize it at the time, but Ohiopyle has some fantastic rafting. We did the lower river which had a bunch of category threes, and several category fours, but if you're more adventurous, the upper river is pretty much all fives.
My mom was sitting on top of a bridge to take some pictures as we went by. Go figure, this is the set of rapids where I fell out. Also go figure, despite my mom not knowing which raft we were in, she managed to get full documentation of the drama. Thankfully I wasn't the only person to do so, but I was still quite embarrassed.
So here we are, rafting along all fun like. We're the top raft. You can kinda see my yellow shirt in the back corner of the raft (Sorry for the poor image quality...I zoomed in as much as I could in photoshop, but as Blogger naturally downsizes the image, it's still kinda hard to see).
In this picture you can see everyone in the raft leaning over to help someone back into the raft. Yeah...that's me.
And here you can see that, apart from one leg, I'm mostly back in. I have to salute our raft guide, Missy, who somehow managed to grab my ankle before I had even completely fallen out of the raft. To be honest, I don't even know how it happened. One moment I was paddling, the next I was in the water. Oh well, I figure I just got the 'full experience' of rafting.
Steph and I both had a blast doing it...and it certainly fed my already potent desire to get a Kayak...although if I do get one, I won't be tackling any category 4 rapids any time soon!
After our rafting adventure, we went to a nearby tributary of the Ohiopyle River and rode the 'natural water slide'. Not as thrilling as white water rafting, but still a lot of fun, and much cheaper.There were three levels to the slide, the last of which I only did once as it throws you into some nasty rocks, but the first two levels were great.
This is another picture that I took into Photoshop and zoomed in on. Perhaps my favorite picture of Stephanie from this entire trip!
After the water slide, we stopped by Cucumber Falls (it was great, all of this, the rafting, the slide, Cucumber Falls, were all within just two or three miles of each other).
Don't I look all Zenny and peaceful? WELL I'M NOT! THAT WATER HURTS!!!
Ah, my genius looking vampire baby...
After Cucumber Falls we went to Ohiopyle Falls.
Not super tall (only 15 feet) but still pretty dramatic.
There's a future astrophysicist in there somewhere...as long as vampires can be astrophysicists.
We got this fancy hiking baby carrier for Aundrea...man that thing was great. It made her (relatively) easy to carry, and she loved it too. Never once did she complain while in that thing. In fact, when we hiked with her in that proved to be the one time of the day we could reliably get her to sleep (yeah...very rarely did she sleep in the car seat............................................)
The falls from the other side of the river.
The entire time we were there, we were looking for this place that our state parks book said was great for watching the sunset at. We never did find it, but we did find this nice overlook in the search.
The next day, Thursday, we parted ways with my mom. She headed back to Erie, with a few shopping stops on the way, while we drove to Shenandoah National Park, where we spent the rest of the day.
To be honest, I was pretty disappointed with Shenandoah. It was one of the least exciting National Parks I've been to. The two ways I can see it being worth the entry cost is A) you're going in the fall when all the trees are changing or B) you're old and feeble and want a park where you can see pretty much everything there is to see from your car. But even there, the I liked the Blue Ridge Parkway MUCH more, and that was free...soooo...yeah. Skip it.
Pretty much the only thing we did besides pull over and look at scenic overpasses (which all start to look the same after a while) was to hike down to this cool, multi-level waterfall. Unfortunately all the trees made it difficult to get a picture of it that did it justice.
So this was kinda crazy. The last few miles of the park, we were stopped for about 20 minutes while a wrecker recovered a car that had gone over a cliff earlier in the day. Unfortunately (I just verified it with a Google search) the 53 year old woman driving the car died.
But the day ends on a good note! We stayed at the Afton Mountain Bed and Breakfast. Our hosts were very kind, and it was a really cool house.
Our hosts recommended Blue Mountain Brewery for dinner, advice which I am very thankful that we heeded. We got the Black and Blue pizza, which was sausage and feta cheese, and it packed a punch! The sauce was unlike any pizza sauce I've ever had before, and yet the flavor was nagging familiar. It wasn't until the last slice or two that I finally placed it. The sauce either was, or had in it, red curry! It sounds pretty strange, but that was quite possibly the best pizza I've ever had. They also had one of the best beers I've ever had. It was called "Dark Hollows". It's aged in oak bourbon barrels, so it has a hint of bourbon flavoring, and a unique touch from the oak barrels. DE-LIC-IOUS!The next day we hopped on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Which was gorgeous. And fun. But we'll get to that later (the fun, that is, we'll get right to the Blue Ridge Parkway...as should be made obvious by the sign in the picture below).
Unfortunately we just missed seeing it in action, but one of our stops was at this little Olde Tyme villages. I guess they took a bunch of the original buildings and put this place together to show what life was like in the Appalachian mountains in the time of early settlers.
That night we stayed at the Blue Ridge Bed and Breakfast. To be frank, this was a far cry from the B&Bs Steph and I have stayed in thus far. It was a fairly modest house, and didn't seem particularly suited to be a B&B (awkward room layout). As Steph said, it was more like just staying in someone's house. I also think that it was more geared towards the biker crowed (which there were a lot of on the Parkway!). Pool table, bar, 80's rock and roll playing in the living room...that sort of thing. But what it lacked in grandeur it made up for in the hosts being really nice people (I'm talking with the main host on the porch in this picture). Also, the breakfast was a bounteous feast of deliciousness.
Spectacular views.
I told Kyle (childhood friend) that someday we were going to bike the Blue Ridge Parkway. Now I just need a road bike.
We stopped briefly at an old plantation manor turned hoity toity craft store. Steph was excited to see horses. They had nothing to do with the house, but the plantation owner's hobby was building roads (how weird is that?), and built something obscene like 1500 miles worth of carriage roads on his estate(almost as obscene as having an estate with 3,600 acres!). These local people ride their horses on these old carriage roads most Saturdays. With views like this, I might even ride frequently.
And the house. Man would I ever love a house like that....
And the view that comes with it (this is basically looking out from the porch above).
Steph got a pair of copper earrings, and we got a print for Aundrea's Nursery, but overall the prices were steep. This quilt was only about 2 ft.^2 0.0
And some more pictures of the prettiness.
Our vampire baby sucking the life out of a banana. Go figure, she doesn't really like bananas unless she can eat the skin too...gross.
But while we were stopped here picnicking, a lady started talking to us, asking us how we liked our Mazda 3 (Love it!). She had a Mazda 5. Well, she left, and then came back bearing gifts for Aundrea. You can see she is quite pleased with them (A fish that 'swims' when you pull a string, and a sand bucket with shovel). Now there is some southern hospitality! And her parting words to us: zoom-zoom. Hahahaha! My kind of lady.
It was actually that ladies comment that inspired me to do this:
I'm not going to lie, I was driving like a bit of a maniac. Those twisty-turny roads were just too fun to pass up. At one point, two touring cycles passed me (and I was already going about 10-15 mph over), so I vowed that I was going to keep up with them. Much to my surprise I did. Let me tell you, my Mazda is boss. Until traveling on this road, I never knew just how good that thing handles...I was zipping around turns effortlessly, and with those massive brakes, I never had any trouble slowing down when an unexpectedly sharp turn appeared in the road ahead. Plus it has pretty good pick-up. The only slight problem is that there were plenty of people who did not share my enthusiasm for speed, and I always felt like kinda a jerk for passing them. By writing that into the dust on the back of my car, I felt like I was offering those I passed a small justification for my erratic driving. Or perhaps it made me seem like more of a jerk? I don't know...but boy did I have fun.
Our next stop was an apple orchard that was over 100 years old. Not a whole lot to do there seeing as it's not apple season, but they were having some Appalachia culture festival. You should've seen the old timers get up and tap dance to the music.
Our next stop proved to be my favorite hike of the trip. It was beautiful. All of it. It was a pretty rough trail...very steep and rocky, but it was worth every step.
The mountain laurels were blooming everywhere, as well as several other beautiful flowers (didn't include pictures of all of them).
And then the waterfall at the bottom of the gorge was spectacular. Unfortunately I don't remember the name of the falls off the top of my head...Steph will probably be able to add it later.
I loved this random tree that was growing in the middle of the stream, on boulders, at the base of the falls. Too cool.
Like I said, Aundrea rarely slept in the car seat, but in the backpack...lights out!
This is the highest point east of the Mississippi. We didn't take the half mile trail to the actual peak...we figured this was good enough (it was late, Aundrea was getting fussy, and we were tired).
We ate dinner at the restaurant just a little ways down the road from the peak. It offered a spectacular view...and the prices were actually quite reasonable.
That night, just before we exited the parkway, someone was stopped in front of us. We couldn't figure out why until we were driving past...then Steph saw the black bear. So we turned around and shamelessly parked in the middle of the road just as the previous car had. Unfortunately, it was dark so it was hard to get a good picture of it.
That night we stayed at a total "Dead Hooker In The Bathroom" motel. Oh man. The bad side of town, dumpy...I literally got out of bed about 5 times to peek out the window and make sure our car was still there (there was a lot of commotion outside).
Yes, this is an actual picture of the comforter. Bleeagahsdg.
And lets not forget the classy artwork....
The next day we went to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.
First pictures are of the third highest peak south of the Mississippi (we had already gone to the first two).
But, how ironic, the view was a little...dare I say 'smokey'?
We then hiked on about 1/5th of a mile of the Appalachian trail. This is something Steph wanted to do, just so she could say she did it. So yes! We bravely hiked a small fraction of a mile of a trail that is over 2200 miles long! Go us!
Our stop for lunch.
Our difficult hike for the day. For the most part the weather was really nice, mostly because we were at such a high elevation that it never got too hot. But this hike was hot. My guess would be high 80s, with a very high humidity.
Cool little natural arch at the end of the hike (or at least where we turned around).
Our last hike of the day. This was a nature trail through 'virgin' forest. Steph and I were expecting a black bear to jump out and eat us at any moment. It just seemed like the perfect bear habitat.
As soon as...and I mean the FOOT that the Great Smokey Mountain's National Park ends, Gatlinburg begins. Now remember, I spent a good portion of my adolescence in Virginia Beach, VA, a tourist trap by any definition. My word, Gatlinburg made Va Beach look like a puritan settlement. If it was touristy, they had it: TWO Ripley's museums, a Guinness museum, a Bubba Gumps Shrimp Co., a Hard Rock Cafe, five, yes FIVE (that we saw, there may have been more), Olde Time Photo stores (I mean, seriously, how many old fashioned photo boutiques can one town support?!?), and about a billion other random touristy stores selling trash that no one would ever buy in their hometown, but apparently are all to happy to buy when they're on vacation.
Our next stop was Cumberland Falls, but Steph noticed that, on the map, no more than 20 miles from Cumberland was a little state park. So off we went! It was actually a really cool place.
Something that I struggle with in taking pictures is perspective. Sometimes it is really hard for me to put what I'm taking a picture of into perspective. This is one of those. This cave was huge...but none of the pictures really show that. This was the best I could do The backpack is sitting directly below the entrance, and if you look carefully, you can just make Steph out (If the backpack is the center of a clock, Steph is at 1:00ish)
Here are some random strangers whom I took pictures of, again to try to put things into perspective.
This cliff was on a hike on the other side of the road (so not the same as the pictures above).
Aundrea loved to steal my sunglasses. If I was carrying her, off the went. You will notice in that picture that one of the rubber ear pieces is missing. They are both now gone.
Another hike at this park was this one, which took us to Crystal Falls. Small, but very pretty.
Sometimes when I got tired, we let Aundrea take a turn at the wheel. If you thought I was a crazy driver...phaw...
So remember when I said that according to the map Pickett State Park was just a hop, skip and jump away from Cumberland Falls? Yeah. Not so much. Or if it is, there aren't any roads that conveniently link the two. Have you all seen the episode of the office where Michael Scott follows the GPS into the lake? This was kinda like that. It took us on a dirt road...and the whole time I'm having flashbacks to the Seattle Road Trip I took with Wojo, Liz and Scholma, where we followed the GPS and ended up having to get out of the car and clear boulders off of the never used forest road...which conveniently only had "Not For Public Use" signs at the other end of the road. Was it as bad as that? Yes and no. Did I have to get out and clear boulders off the road? No. Were there hills so steep that I had to take a speedy start, and still almost didn't make it up? Yes. Were there ravines in the road that had me scared a wheel was going to fall off? Yes. Did I fear that if we did get stranded we were going to be eaten by inbred cannibalistic hillbillies? Absolutely. Well, 10 miles or so of that, and we finally got back to pavement...such a blessing. Alas, the only picture Steph took was of a VERY tame segment of it.
Cumberland Falls was nice, but we were too hot and tired to really do much. We got out, checked it out (there's really no point where you get a great view of the falls unfortunately), and then headed on.
I thought these butterflies were pretty. Ain't I all sensitive and whatnot?
We ate dinner at a resteraunt at the top of the hill from the falls. It had a great view of the river below, and had some bird feeders, so there were lots of cool birds right out the window. Then, halfway through the dinner, I look outside and we have this little guy about four feet from where we sat, scavenging the birdseed.
Aundrea was quite fascinated with this large creature. It, in turn, ignored her.
Then we got to the final stop of our journey. Red River Gorge, where we were going to meet up with Nate (brother-in-law) and Derek (brother-in-law). Unbeknownst to me, Red River Gorge is one of the top rock climbing places in the world, and Nathan is an avid climber. So Steph was going to head back to MI, while the Brothers had some man time.
The Nada Tunnel. Pretty cool, although it's one lane nature was somewhat disconcerting.
We got there Monday, and we weren't expecting Nate and Derek until Tuesday evening, so after a more relaxing Monday night, Steph and I went to the Natural Bridge State Recreation Area in the morning.
We took the trail up to balancing rock...which we found out when we got back was the opposite way you're supposed to go, as the Balancing Rock trail was all steps. And it was 95. And humid.
This is balancing rock...and a cool tree growing next to it.
This is the view standing on top of the natural arch.
And this is a picture of natural arch standing on what is shown in the previous picture. With all the trees, you'd never even guess it was an arch.
But this proves it.
This is the 'original' path built by the railroad company that originally owned this land. Steph and I were quite curious as to what would happen should a more 'heavyset' individual take this trail.
Steph and I were eating lunch and looking forward to a nice afternoon nap in our A/C cabin when Nate and Derek arrived unexpectedly early. After getting things situated and relaxing for a bit, we did some climbing that afternoon.A few general notes on climbing:
1) Nate is a beast. He climbed the route to set the rope up, and then after Derek and I climbed the route (and often helping us get past some challenging parts), he climbed it again and took the route down. On top of climbing every route twice, the hard way, he climbed one more challenging route that Derek and I didn't climb. And he climbed these routes with the grace of a mountain goat.
2) I thought I was going to kick Dereks butt at this, but, on some routes, he definitely out climbed me. Way to go Derek.
3) I have never received such a total body workout.
Nate actually talked Steph into climbing the first route, and despite some hesitation, and with some help from Nate, Steph got to the top! (That's her(or at least her butt) below)
Some of the other routes we climbed.
When we were too tired, or it was too hot (it was in the 90s every day we were there) we practiced our 'slack lining' (Think tight-rope). This is also something that Nate was exceptionally good at...walking all the way across, and then coming back across backwards, and all sorts of other crazy moves. I am proud to say that by the end of our time in Kentucky, I did manage to get 2/3rds of the way across, but alas I never made it all the way across.
Derek was a little kamikaze in his slack lining approach. When he would start to lose his balance, he would just start stumbling forward, attempting to get as many steps in as quickly as possible. This led to some hysterical dismounts. Both Nate and I were amazed that he managed to escape these often awkward dismounts relatively unscathed.
And this is me after Derek took my camera one to many times and took three or four quick succession pictures of absolutely nothing in particular.
And this...this is a source of both pride and shame. In climbing, as I understand it, difficulty is rated from 5.5 (super easy) to 5.14 (suuuuper hard). You will notice in the picture below a red circle. This was the start of our route. It was rated 5.7, so basically pretty easy. Derek got it no problem. I could not, for the life of me, get up this stupid thing. I had tried six or seven times, I was tired, sweaty, and angry. So Nate said: "Get off the line and take a break. I'll climb it and you can try again when you're more rested." I started to detach myself from the line, and then had a change of heart."Put it back on Nate, I'm going to try something stupid."
Now if you will look once more at the picture, you will see a red arrow pointing to a three or four foot overhang about 8 ft. off the ground. This was a 5.10 start, so fairly difficult. I decided I was going to try that one. What made me think that I could do a 5.10 when I couldn't do a 5.7 I have no idea, but I tried, and I got it, first try.
Lesson learned: Being tall certainly has many advantages in climbing. Being tall also has disadvantages when the hand/foot holds are closer together, thus forcing your center of gravity further out, thus making it more difficult to hold on. Also...I suck at climbing.
And the last night there, a mouse was scurrying over our feet by the campfire. Nate, the mighty conqueror, squashed it. The crows were quite boisterous in their thanks that morning.
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